Puzzlesare a great way to keep your mind in shape. They’re engaging, they’re fun, and they keep you busy for hours on end. So, it’s no surprise that puzzle games are some of the most popular inthe mobile gaming space.
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With an almost episodic nature and small digestible levels that can be played quickly, puzzle games occupy a big portion of the market. There are a lot of puzzle games in stores, and they belong to different categories. From classics ported from the ‘ye olden ages to new games with interesting mechanics, mobile users have a cornucopia of choice.
There area lot of similar games, but the original is the original for a reason. Tetris is one of the oldest games still around and has pretty simple mechanics. It’s an easy game to learn and a hard one to master, though not that hard, to be completely honest.
It’s hard to mess up a classic game. There will always be a loyal fanbase, and if you add a fresh new coat over the graphics and innovate some new mechanics, you’ll get new players coming to play the game as well.
9Wordscapes
With over 50M+ downloads on the Play Store and a truly staggering amount of levels, Wordscapes is the number one word-based puzzle, at least according to the numbers alone. The gameplay involves figuring out all the major anagrams from a set of five or six letters.
The game is quite rewarding to play and makes you feel smart when you manage to figure out all the combinations, but the biggest caveat is the amount of ads you have to watch, one after each level, making it almost not worth the trouble.
8Cut The Rope
A game from the 2010s, Cut The Rope was all the rage back when it was first released. Belonging to the same era as Flappy Bird and Angry Birds (lots of birds),the classic puzzle gameis a fun exercise for your brain as you try to wrap your head around the physics engine.
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The goal of each level is to get candy to the gremlin-like creature, usually by interacting with ropes attached to said candy, causing different physical reactions. It’s a fun way to learn the principles of action and reaction, and it’s a mind twister once you get to higher difficulties. It also has a sequel and some spin-offs if the first one doesn’t satisfy your appetite for physics-based puzzles.
7Color Switch
A rhythm game, as much as it is a puzzle game, Color Switch is a game about timing, dedication, and muscle memory. The core game mechanics are actually very similar to something like Flappy Bird, where the player only has to tap the screen periodically to play the game.
With a wide range of game modes to try and a lot of high scores to set, Color Switch is sure to keep you busy for a while. It also has a bunch of customization options that make the effort you put in seem worth it, at least to some degree.
6Flow Free
Another classic from the start of the rise of smartphones and game stores, Flow Free, is a relatively simple but engaging puzzle game. It involves connecting same colored dots on a large grid in such a way that none of the lines connecting said dots intersect one another.
The game is worth checking out with variations like Flow Free: Hexes and Flow Free: Warps that add a new layer to the puzzle available for free. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that modern puzzle games do; its UI is quite simple, and the sound design leaves a little bit to be desired, but the lack of ads and fun gameplay is worth the hassle.
5FLIP: Offline Match Puzzle Game
A nice simple game that’s surprisingly hard to find on the Play Store (you have to type on the whole title for it to show up), FLIP is quite a simple game. The player is given control of a box that can move around a stage vertically or horizontally, leaving behind a trail as they move.
Each move creates different colored boxes, with connected boxes of the same color matching and disappearing in numbers of three or higher. Each level has a different goal, but the core gameplay remains the same. The best thing about FLIP is the fact that you don’t have to sit through ten minutes of ads to play one level. It’s quite non-invasive, all things considered.
4IQ Dungeon
IQ Dungeon belongs to the genre of monkey-paw puzzle games that ask you to do simple, seemingly impossible tasks that have a weird, out-of-the-box solution. It’s a great way to get yourself thinking non-linearly and bringing out your creative side.
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It has minimalist graphics that still manage to look good, and the ads in the game are basically non-existent. It’s a great experience overall, and the level design is great as well.
3High Rise
Based on the classic 2048 game, High Rise takes the premise and flips it on its head, creating something new and unique in the process. The game involves a few different square grid sizes that the player can choose to play on. The gameplay as the player plops down colored blocks on said grid, with the same colored blocks joining together to make larger blocks.
Blocks that have already been placed cannot be moved or removed, making it a game of chance, skill, and calculated risk. Oh, and you can only merge larger blocks with blocks of the same size or two blocks that are just one level beneath it.
2That Level Again
A classic in the realm of weird puzzle games, That Level Again, and associated sequels (there are four total games, yes, four!) has a very distinct visual style. Preferring to keep the graphics on the monotone grayscale side of things, That Level Again takes advantage of your phone’s ridiculous amount of sensors and takes the gaming experience past the fourth wall.
If you like the first game, there are three sequels for you to enjoy, each with similar mechanics and level design, delivering a coherent and uniform experience for players. It’s the kind of game you can only experience once, but that experience is quite special.
1Little Alchemy 2
Arguablythe best puzzle gameto ever grace the presence of humanity, Little Alchemy is a fun, addictive, and simple game about mixing and matching different elements to get products that you’re able to mix and match with other products to get more products.
The goal of the game is to discover as many things as possible. The player starts with the humble Fire, Earth, Air, and Water, and can unlock things like Atomic bombs, aliens, humans, and even black stars. It’s the most fun you’ll ever have playing a puzzle game.
